Focus: Spitzer rides into town

The man dubbed the sheriff of Wall Street has turned his aim to the IFSC. Who will walk out of this fight alive, ask Joe Brennan and Brian Carey

John Houldsworth, a middle-aged British insurance executive, fits the image of a senior International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) employee. An expat who lived in a quiet and comfortable housing estate in the south Dublin suburb of Killiney, Houldsworth commuted to the docklands offices of his employer, Cologne Re, for the best part of a decade.

At weekends, he played a round of golf at Glen O’The Downs in Co Wicklow and turned out for a local hockey club. A well-paid actuary, he served as chairman of the highly influential Dublin International Insurance and Management Association (DIIMA), the umbrella organisation for insurance companies in the IFSC.

Like so many well-known figures in the IFSC, Houldsworth, 45, was a totally anonymous figure to the rest of the Irish business community.

Until last month, that is. Now everybody wants to talk to Houldsworth. The Briton is the man providing many of the answers